November 27, 2011

Why Didn't I Think of This Before?

I was reading through the Food section in our local paper at work a few weeks ago and as always, got sucked in to the piece where they post a recipe from a local restaurant. They posted a recipe from Z-Bar for Eggplant Francese. It sounded so delicious and made me realize that I never do anything new with eggplant, so this had to be tried.

I used the plethora of eggplants from our garden at the end of the season and we noshed on this for dinner with some pasta and veggies. And let me tell you, this was so incredibly good, worth the effort, and just simply tasty!

Eggplant Francese

1 medium to large eggplant * I used probably 4-5 eggplants of various sizes

1/2 cup flour

4 eggs

1/4 C. canola oil for frying

1 tsp. olive oil

1 tsp. cold butter * I omitted this

1 tsp. chopped garlic * I probably used closer to a T

1 tsp. chopped shallots

1/ cup white wine

1/ cup chicken broth

1 T fresh lemon juice

2 T capers, drained * I probably used 1/4 cup - we adore capers

2 T fresh parsley chopped

6 T cold butter, cubed

Parmesan

Peel the eggplant and slice it * I did ours in rounds but the recipe calls for lengthwise.

Preheat oven to 375. Lightly salt and pepper the slices so they don't soak up too much oil.

Put flour on a plate. Beat the eggs in a small bowl. Dredge the eggplant slices into the flour and then in to the egg.

Place a large nonstick pan on the burner and add in the canola oil and bring to a medium heat. Fry the eggplant on both sides until lightly golden brown. Place them on parchment paper when they are done and fry the remaining pieces. When the eggplant slices have all been browned, place in the oven for about 5 minutes until they are soft to the touch. Remove from the oven.

For the sauce: Drain oil from the pan and add a teaspoon of olive oil and a teaspoon of butter * I omitted the extra fat here because there was just a touch of oil left after cleaning out the pan. Add the garlic and shallots and saute until slightly browned.

Add the white wine and reduce by 2/3. Add the chicken broth and reduce by half. Add the lemon juice, capers and parsley.

When the sauce starts to thicken, remove from heat and whisk in the cold butter. Make sure you remove the pan from the heat because it will just break down the sauce. *I didn't use the full 6T of butter, maybe 4.5

Serve the eggplant slices with the sauce drizzled over the top and top with Parmesan.